American Humor and the English Language--Also the Farce Tradition in American Humor

FAIN: FR-10220-78

William W. Hoffa
Hamilton College (Clinton, NY 13323-1295)

To study two antithetical human impulses which comedy explores and exploits dramatically. The first, which might be called Apollonian, is the impulse toward social order, decency, decorum, piety, and restraint; the second, which might be called Dionysian, is the impulse toward disorder, impiety, amorality, release, and the aggressions of the unfettered ego. Such a study of American humor and the English language will reveal a network of covert values and tensions which exist beneath the surface of American social and political life.